Plans for new deep coal mining projects in Britain are "unnecessary" and incompatible with the country's 2050 carbon-neutral target, a report by environmental think-tank Green Alliance said Wednesday.

The report focused on Woodhouse Colliery in the county of Cumbria, in northwest England, which is the first deep coal mine project to be launched in Britain in 40 years.

The mine was "unnecessary" for the local steel industry and would instead "hinder the development of low carbon alternatives to conventional steel production", said the report, written by two academics, Rebecca Willis and Mike Berners-Lee.

"No new high-carbon infrastructure (mines, airports etc) can be built and used if the world is to keep within 1.5 degrees," Willis told AFP, referring to the Celsius temperature goal set out in the Paris climate pact.

"The UK, if it wants to see itself as a climate leader, needs to have a much firmer line on extraction of fossil fuel."

Local authorities have already approved the mine, which would produce 2.43 million tonnes of coal per year for the steel industry, but other regulators are yet to give the green light.

Britain has committed to move away from coal, with its last coal-fired power stations due to close within five years.

Green Alliance points out that there are currently "a number of proposals for new coal mines" in the country, in addition to the one in Cumbria.

The report calls on the steel industry to work towards a lower carbon future by recycling steel, modernising steelworks to make them more energy efficient including through innovative techniques using natural gas or hydrogen.

"Less steel could be used, through more efficient building and manufacturing processes," it added.

Backers of the project say that it will directly create 518 jobs in an economically disadvantaged region, and that it would cut the need for imports, making it "carbon neutral".

Britain's green energy sector brightens: survey data
London (AFP) Jan 16, 2020 - Green energy has boomed in Britain over the last three years, according to survey data published Thursday which also highlighted accelerating investment in wind power.

Turnover in Britain's low carbon and renewable energy sector expanded 15.5 percent to 46.7 billion pounds ($60.8 billion, 54.6 billion euros) in 2018 compared with 2015, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said in a report.

That rapid growth helped create and sustain a total of 224,800 full-time jobs, compared with 200,800 three years earlier.

The expansion was achieved against the backdrop of Britain's long-standing vow to become carbon neutral by 2050, when it hopes to achieve net zero for UK greenhouse gas emissions.

The sector's biggest component was the energy efficient products -- which includes the design, manufacture or installation of energy efficient doors, windows and insulation.

Sales of energy efficient products, excluding lighting, comprised about one third of the total at 16.7 billion pounds in 2018, according to the ONS.

The next biggest component was low emission vehicles, whose turnover stood at 4.4 billion pounds in the same year.

Turning to wind power, the ONS said acquisitions of capital assets in this area accelerated to 4.2 billion pounds in 2018, up from just 700 million pounds in 2015.

The annual ONS survey was based on a sample of 24,000 businesses in low-carbon sectors, collecting data on turnover, imports, exports, employment, aquisitions and asset disposals.

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Protests and outrage as Siemens backs Aussie mine project
Berlin (AFP) Jan 13, 2020
Environmental activists across the world slammed German engineering conglomerate Siemens on Monday after it decided to carry on with a controversial coal mine project in Australia. After holding talks with environmentalists in Berlin last week, CEO Joe Kaeser said Sunday that Siemens would go ahead with plans to provide rail infrastructure for the Carmichael mine in Queensland. On Monday, activists from the Fridays for Future movement responded by protesting outside the company's offices in 15 ... read more